Virgin Promise. Kara Lennox

      

      “I was a virgin.”

      Vic felt dizzy at the realization of what he’d done. He’d taken something from Angela through deception. If he’d known…he never would have come on so strong.

      “Why didn’t you tell me?” he asked in a hoarse voice.

      “I didn’t want you to change your mind. Men like you run from virgins. I’m sorry.”

      “You don’t have to apologize for giving me an incredible gift.” He was the one who should be apologizing. But to do that, he’d have to confess this night started off as a setup….

      Dear Reader,

      Come join us for another dream-fulfilling month of Harlequin American Romance! We’re proud to have this chance to bring you our four special new stories.

      In her brand-new miniseries, beloved author Cathy Gillen Thacker will sweep you away to Laramie, Texas, hometown of matchmaking madness for THE LOCKHARTS OF TEXAS. Trouble brews when arch rivals Beau and Dani discover a marriage license—with their names on it! Don’t miss The Bride Said, “I Did?”!

      What better way to turn a bachelor’s mind to matrimony than sending him a woman who desperately needs to have a baby? Mindy Neff continues her legendary BACHELORS OF SHOTGUN RIDGE miniseries this month with The Horseman’s Convenient Wife—watch Eden and Stony discover that love is anything but convenient!

      Imagine waking up to see your own wedding announcement in the paper—to someone you hardly know! Melinda has some explaining to do to Ben in Mollie Molay’s The Groom Came C.O.D., the first book in our HAPPILY WEDDED AFTER promotion. And in Kara Lennox’s Virgin Promise, a bad boy is shocked to discover he’s seduced a virgin. Will promising to court her from afar convince her he wants more than one night of passion?

      Find out this month, only from Harlequin American Romance!

      Best wishes,

      Melissa Jeglinski

      Associate Senior Editor

      Virgin Promise

      Kara Lennox

       www.millsandboon.co.uk

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      For my husband, Rob

      ABOUT THE AUTHOR

      Texas native Kara Lennox has been an art director, typesetter, advertising copy writer, textbook editor and reporter. She’s worked in a boutique, a health club and has conducted telephone surveys. She’s been an antiques dealer and briefly ran a clipping service. But no work has made her happier than writing romance novels.

      When Kara isn’t writing, she indulges in an ever-changing array of weird hobbies, from rock climbing to crystal digging. But her mind is never far from her stories. Just about anything can send her running to her computer to jot down a new idea for some future novel.

      Dear Reader,

      I can’t imagine any career more satisfying—or more fun—than writing romance novels. After writing dozens of books over the past few years for different romance lines and different publishers, I’m especially happy to have found a home with Harlequin American Romance, a line I’ve been reading since its launch.

      Virgin Promise was a fun story to write, probably because my cautious, organized heroine, Angela, who plans every detail of her life, is nothing like me! I always wondered how such people cope when they fall crazy in love. Here, at least, is one theory about what might happen. Poor Angie doesn’t know what hit her, and Vic, the steady, reliable cop she falls in love with, doesn’t fare much better! Eventually, of course, they figure it all out. But I tortured them a bit along the way. (Authors get to do that.)

      I hope you enjoy Virgin Promise, and I look forward to sharing more fun stories with you in the future.

      Sincerely,

      Contents

       Prologue

       Chapter One

       Chapter Two

       Chapter Three

       Chapter Four

       Chapter Five

       Chapter Six

       Chapter Seven

       Chapter Eight

       Chapter Nine

       Chapter Ten

       Chapter Eleven

       Chapter Twelve

       Chapter Thirteen

       Chapter Fourteen

       Chapter Fifteen

       Epilogue

      Prologue

      “It was in the back seat of my mother’s station wagon at the local lovers’ lane.”

      Angela Capria listened to her friend Phoebe’s sordid confession with a mixture of discomfort and fascination. Fascination because her friends looked so normal, yet each one shocked her anew with their tales of painful embarrassment. Discomfort, because she’d already heard three humiliating anecdotes during the past half hour. Her turn was rapidly approaching.

      She wasn’t sure how the subject had come up, but over pasta salad and diet Cokes at their favorite deli, Angela’s co-workers had spontaneously started confessing how they’d lost their virginity, sparing no details.

      “I was sixteen,” Phoebe, a bouncy